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"will be conducted on principles similar to those on which the Queen's Colleges have been founded; and will strictly avoid sectarian and "party politics."

That is something more to the point, said we, as we glanced over the foregoing unvarnished paragraph. Still it is very meagre, and its only merit consists in its truth. We must write something more explanatory, and better calculated to give a general idea of our design. While thus musing, a thought flashed across our mind. Would not a Preface be somewhat relieved from its usual tediousness by being presented under the garb of poetry? Would we not be able to shadow forth a great deal in verse, that could not be so well said in prose ? We at once determined to woo the poetic muse. Grasping our pen more firmly than ever, we mustered all our energies, and penned the following introduction, which we send to fight its own way in the world.

The Introduction.

In olden times, when youthful knights
Displayed their strength in bloody fights;
When, if we credit ancient story,
The slippery path to fame and glory
Lay through the sanguinary field,
Won only by the sword and shield;
No doubt, in such a knock-down era,
"Twould have been deemed a vain chimera,
For any mortal to have stated
That he believed 'twas firmly fated
Ages to come would lay in dust
The flag-and let the helmet rust;
Would rather keep the head intact,
Than let it by a club be cracked,
Would think it nobler far to cure
Than kill, Turk, Infidel, or Moor;

Would trust much more to thought than blows,
Hold war less glorious than repose,
In fact, would raise, without remorse
The mind of man above brute force.

The "good old times," at such a notion
Would have kicked up a strange commotion;
And Bedlam very soon have locked in
The broacher of such foolish doctrine :
But now, since truth has been discerned,
The tables have been wholly turned.
We see the present generation
Strive to excel through education,
Not of the body, but the mind;
Appearing to be much inclined
To hold the latter quite superior,
Because 'tis hid in the interior;

Deeming, what even monkies tell,
The kernel's better than the shell.

Such being now the case-no more
Shall knights romantic wander o'er
Our hills and vales, with lance in hand,
Threatening with slaughter half the land;
Knocking down all who near them stray'd,
To show they didn't feel afraid,

And quarrelling, right and left, because
They were the guardians of the laws.
Expecting that the bubble, Fame,
Would soon descend upon their name,
As they had taken care most duly
Each unoffending man to bully;
Their bounden duty being, to thresh all
They chanced to meet-for nought especial.
Such pranks, however, now have fled,
And better deeds are taught instead ;
Fame sends no more Quixotic knights
To risk their necks in senseless fights.
Improvement scorns the Tourney's war,
And points to lists more noble far-
Those lists where intellectual might
Gleams full upon the reader's sight;
Where Mind its coat of steel assumes,
Its shining arms, its waving plumes,
O'erturns brute force, with one brave blow,
And lays the blustering tyrant low.

Around us pitched, such lists appear,
Held every month within the year,

Where literary champions fight

Against what's wrong, and for what's right;

And though on these two points they may

Some difference now and then display,

Yet we must grant, they always fight
For what they really think is right.
Too true, in this congenial spot
Such lists have almost been forgot;
But be it ours, with steady aim
To earn an honourable name;
Our efforts never to relax

Till doubt be chased away by facts.
To stamp impressions fresh and new,
Serious or gay, but always true;
And prove to every reasoning man
That, what the spirit wills, it can.

Truth, kindly truth, our knights confess
Their only "Queen of Loveliness."
Our lists which now we open wide,
Shall never own another guide.

Her dictates always shall direct,
Her presence cheer, her power protect.

Sure that her hand must rule aright,
Our lists we ope to every knight;
Here he may run his proud career,
Here shiver many a gallant spear;
Here dazzle with some brilliant feat,
The vizored strangers he will meet;
For here unknown knight-errants may
The magic of their arts display;

All who have mused, and all men ought,
Can here write boldly what they thought.
He who has paced through History's halls,
May tell us how the footstep falls
Above those graves where nations sleep,
And glories past their vigils keep;

He who has searched in Mind's deep spring
May many a lustrous pearl-drop bring;
And let them o'er our pages flow,
To teach us how, and what, to know.
While he whose fancy loves to pore
O'er records of Scholastic lore,
Perchance may point to classic ground,
And, strewing olden legends round,
May waft us back to other times,
Or picture scenes in distant climes;
Here graceful Wit unchecked may roam,
And Taste and Beauty find a home.

The student here of every art,
May in the Tourney bear his part;
Nature's true pupil, here display
Her sparkling treasures to the day,
As if possest of Gyges' ring,
Unseen the minstrel here may sing.
Here he may bare with wondrous art
The secret throbbings of the heart;
Here touch affection's fine-wrought string,
Or here his careless fingers fling,
And let the changing numbers flow
O'er chords of anger, mirth, or woe.
Yes! the vast stores of human feeling
He ne'er can weary in revealing :
The world of mind lies spread before him,
And worlds of light are shining o'er him;
While through creation, fresh and fair,
Are worlds of thought found everywhere.

The fairer sex themselves can here,
Armed cap-à-pié, as knights appear;
No spangled herald at a barrier
Shall rudely stop a lady warrior,

So, now and then, in this disguise
A damsel may bear off the prize;
But, since all courteous gallants know -
"Tis pleasant to be vanquished so;
The pious fraud we'll quite forgive,
And bid the gentle culprit live.

Then Scholars, Poets, Wits, and Sages

Come, trace your thoughts within these pages;
You cannot shrink, or pause, or dally,

For, hark! we utter "Laissez aller !"

THE CONVERSION OF THE ANGLO-SAXON INTO ENGLISH.*

WE perform a pleasing duty in introducing and recommending to the attentive perusal of our readers the book whose title stands at the foot of this page. It will be found by the young student to be an excellent introduction to an acquaintance with the essential facts of English Philology, aud, as it presents a systematic and well-condensed summary of the whole subject of which it treats, it will serve the more advanced inquirer as a useful manual and text-book. It is, however, to the students of the Queen's University in Ireland, that the present work is specially directed; and it cannot but be regarded as the sign of a sound and practical education that our native tongue is thus placed on a footing of equality with those languages which have hitherto usurped the place of honour in our colleges and universities. It is not because the Greek and Latin do not in themselves possess intrinsic excellencies, for every one must admit that they deserve to be well studied, that we object to the almost exclusive place which they have occupied in the philological departments of university education; but because they have unduly claimed the attention of the major part of the students to the disregard of their own language, which would undoubtedly have yielded them a richer return in the practical affairs of after-life. There might have been some excuse for the mode of procedure which has been adopted, if the literature which is contained within the range of the English language had been unworthy of

standing side by side with its more distinguished rivals, though patriotism would surely have suggested that this was a poor reason for its utter neglect and abandonment. Yet we cannot but be the more surprised at the conduct of those who have been entrusted with the direction and control of the studies of English youth, when the fact is, that the literature of England is far in advance of every other, excepting that of Greece alone; and even over the latter, while in other respects we might hesitate to which party to assign the victory, it possesses the immense superiority that it embodies within it the pure and exalted doctrines of Christianity, and the principles and dictates of a higher morality.

It is not, however, our object to enter into any condemnation of the system of instruction which is still prevalent in our old, and as at present constituted, antiquated universities; but taking Pro fessor Craik's Outlines as our guide, to present before our readers a short and condensed account of the causes which have operated in transforming AngloSaxon into modern English.

The Anglo-Saxon language was introduced into England during the fifth century of our era by the Angles and Saxons, who invaded and conquered the country and settled down, the former in its northern, the latter in its southern districts. In all probability these two people came from different parts of the Continent, and were, for a few generations, distinguished from each other by some dialectical variation of

* "Outlines of the History of the English Language, by G. L. CRAIK, Professor of History and English Literature, Queen's College, Belfast.'

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speech; the language of the Angles being interspersed with considerable traces of Scandinavianism, while the Saxon dialect bore a closer resemblance to its kindred tongues of Low Germanic origin. But it cannot be supposed that there were any essential differences between them, for, after a short period, they coalesced and melted down, without difficulty, into one, which became the literary and acknowledged language of both nations, though probably the original variations were still to a large extent retained in the oral speech of the provincials.

Like all primal or original languages, the Anglo-Saxon was highly inflected; that is, its roots were clothed with prefixes and affixes, with initial and final increments, by which case, gender, person, state, time, and mode were clearly signified. The order and regularity of its composition, its innate richness of expression, and the plastic power by which it was enabled to form new compounds at pleasure, and thus to accommodate itself to every phase of the national mind, have been made the subject of praise by every one who has studied its constitution. So long as the Saxons continued masters of Britain, their native language was spoken in nearly its ancient purity, at least by the higher and educated classes of society. But about the time of the Conquest, or a little before, evident symptoms of the breaking up of its complicated structure began to manifest themselves in the gradual lopping off of its grammatical forms, and in the marked tendency of the people to arrive at a more simple and natural mode of expression. Even while the written language preserved in its compositions all the characteristic forms of its highest state of development, and attended to the same rules of grammatical construction as those which regulated the writers of the classic era of Alfred the Great, it would seem to be beyond doubt that an oral dialect of a less artificial texture was in prevalent use among the rude and unlettered peasantry, who do not care to trammel themselves with the diction of the learned, or with more than is absolutely required for the purposes of ordinary conversation. At any rate, about the middle of the eleventh century, a process of destruction had set in, which was carried on with constantly increasing rapidity, until the middle of

the thirteenth century, when the AngloSaxon disappeared for ever as the tongue of living men.

Some philologists have asserted, with confidence, that the revolution which took place in the Anglo-Saxon was occasioned solely by the social and political degradation of the Saxon-speaking population under the rule of the Norman kings. But this theory, while it is at variance with the general history of all languages which have passed through the same stages, is indefensible, when it is considered that language is the exponent of mind, and must, therefore, be controlled and regulated by mental laws. It would, if correct, imply that political misfortunes had operated so powerfully as to reduce the mass of the people to a state of babbling infancy, when they forgot the established mode of expressing their thoughts and feelings. But no event, short of a loss of reason (and scarcely even that) could affect any mind to such an extent as to cause the derangement and confusion of the language which had been the medium of conversation from childhood and onwards; much less that a whole nation should be so overwhelmed with despair as to change the stately march of their mother-tongue, and transform it into a powerless jargon. All changes in language, as well as in every other department of Nature's works, must be slow and regular, and must proceed upon fixed principles, which are immediately and directly governed by the general laws of mind; and, until the laws of mind become unsettled and irregular, we may with safety assume that no disorganization, other than is natural, can be effected in language which is their outlet and representative. The changes which took place in the Anglo-Saxon were certainly not dictated by caprice, but were originated, directed, and controlled in consequence of a universal law, which has been proved to apply to all languages when passing from an ancient to a modern form. That law is, that as languages become modern, they lose their inflection, and substitute in its stead circumlocutions by means of prepositions and auxiliary verbs. They throw off one after another of the cumbrous trammels in which they have been enveloped, and array themselves in lighter and more suitable apparel.

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